By Warren Stewart, Director of Legislative Issues and Policy, VoteTrustUSA

January 23, 2006

Unique among the states, Nebraska actually prohibits hand recounts in
counties that use voting machines for their original tally.

Nebraska State Senator Jeanne Combs has introduced LB 1013
into Nebraska's unicameral legislature to amends the state election
code to allow a candidate to request a manual recount. Yes, that's
right, it is currently illegal for to the votes of Nebraska citizens to
be counted by other Nebraska citizens - they can only be county by
machines built and programmed by Election Systems and Software
(ES&S). The fact that ES&S is based in Omaha does not make this
situation any less absurd.

The provision, established in 2002, reads:

The procedures for the recounting of ballots shall be the same as those
used for the counting of ballots on election day...Counties counting
ballots by using a vote counting device shall first recount the ballots
by use of the device. If substantial changes are found, the ballots
shall then be counted using such device in any precinct which might
reflect a substantial change.

Election reform activists were generally pleased
when Nebraska Secreatry of State John Gale announced last Fall that the
state would retain their paper ballot voting system. Paper ballots are
inherently voter verified and provide the most reliable method of
preserving the intent of the voter and a means of verifying the
accuracy of electronic machines used for counting providing a safety
net in the case of machine malfunction and ensuring confidence in the
integrity of the election process.

But that confidence is lost if you can’t actually count those paper ballots by hand.

It's like sending an appeal of a court decision on the basis of a
judge's incompetence back to that very same judge to decide - except
worse because humans, in theory, can see the error of their ways.
…
[L]et's face it, we're actually putting our faith in the corporations
that programmed these vote machines, as if they were infallible, rather
than trusting our friends and neighbors on an election commission to do
their job honorably and with competence. How can democracy thrive when
we're more willing to accept errors by machines without accountability
or oversight rather than trusting real live people in a system subject
to both?

In each legislative session since this provision was adopted there has
been legislation introduced to change it and 2006 is no exception.
State Senator Jeanne Combs bill would modify the language in such a way
to allow candidates to demand a hand counted recount. Concerned
citizens in Nebraska and across the nation should support this common sense
legislation.